Catalog • 2012-2013

Honors Courses

HON 105 Honors First Year Seminar - 3 credits

With a focus on women’s leadership, global connectivity, and civic engagement, this course is designed to cultivate students’ integration with the Cedar Crest College community and with the Honors Program. First-year seminars are intended to introduce students to collaborative academic inquiry grounded in reading, discussion, and writing. They also provide opportunities for creative engagement with the seminar topics both inside and outside the classroom. The topics of individual seminars may vary from year to year, as may the faculty members who instruct them.
Completion of this course satisfies the First Year Seminar requirement in the First Year Experience.

HON 110 Honors College Writing - 3 credits

Instruction in the college writing process for Honors students. Writing is addressed as part of a process of academic inquiry and research, with intensive practice given in writing clear, logical, and persuasive claims, stressing focus, content, organization, style, and conventions in argument. Students must pass with a final grade of "C" or better to fulfill the liberal-arts curriculum requirements; students must pass with a final of "B" or better for Honors Program credit.
Students must satisfy the WRI-1 requirement before taking all 200- and 300-level ENG courses, with the exception of ENG 201, 205, 220, 223, 225, and 280.

HON 133 Changing the World from the Inside Out - 3 credits

An introduction to holistic approaches to various global problems. As social change agents, students are challenged to translate their self-awareness into envisioning, formulating and analyzing creative, practical approaches to shaping the world to best meet human needs in the new millennium.

HON 194 Creative Writing - 3 credits

A workshop offering practice in writing poetry and fiction. Students will participate in peer-critiquing sessions and discussions of established authors’ works. Each student will produce a portfolio of written work.
Prerequisite: HON 122 or permission of the instructor.

HON 200 The Quest - 3 credits

This course traces the evolution of Arthurian legend from its origin to the present. Students will analyze the various forms the legend has taken to discover its changing meanings within different historical periods. The course covers both literature and film, including "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

HON 202 Asian Religions - 3 credits

An in-depth examination of Hinduism and Buddhism in south, southeast and East Asia. The course examines the origins of these classical religions of India as well as the smaller, more regionalized faiths in the Indian subcontinent: Jainism and Sikhism. Students participate in a number of field experiences to study the adaptation of the faiths to the United States.

HON 203 The Middle Ages: Myth, Magic, and Mystery - 3 credits

An exploration of some of the ways a thousand years of human experience, from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance, have been remembered and represented in art, literature, and film. By looking at how intense religious belief and mystical experience co-existed with rational thought and behavior, students will discover that facile differentiations between “ancient” and “modern” and between “supernatural” and “scientific” are misplaced. Students will also see that deeply held beliefs, usually dismissed and myths and fables, provided much of the incentive for important historical developments, including Europe’s reconnection with the Orient, the discovery of a “new” world in the Americas, and the revolutions in science and philosophy that transformed our understanding of the universe.

HON 206: Webs and Virtual Spaces: Victorian Lit and E-Lit - 3 credits

Have you ever wondered whether you think or read differently, depending upon whether you grew up on books or the Internet? In this course, we’ll consider what's different about a story told on the page versus on a computer screen, with possibilities for multimedia interactions. To help us answer this question we begin with a consideration of fairy tales and their many variations, then move to an examination of 19th-century fiction and contemporary hypertext “re-visions.” Along the way, you’ll have the chance to craft your own hypertext fairy tale and collaborate on a group hypertext project.

HON 212 Case Studies in the Forensic Sciences: The Application of Science and Technology to the Investigation of Crime - 3 credits

This course is designed to teach the student how science and technology are used in the investigation of crime through the examination of case studies that utilized science and technology in their adjudication. The cases presented will illustrate the use of forensic evidence from a variety of disciplines (for instance, pathology, anthropology, and chemical and biological based evidence) and each student is expected to lead a group discussion on one particular case. No science background is required to take this course.

HON/BIO 215 Bioterrorism & Emerging Infectious Diseases - 3 credits

Ebola, anthrax, Lyme disease, SARS, polio, smallpox, the Plague, mad cow disease and West Nile virus continue to attract the attention of the human species. These are either emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) or the agents responsible for the diseases that plague our kind. In some cases, EIDs and bioterrorism go hand in hand. This course will cover the biological mechanisms of a diversity of diseases, the ecology of disease agents and vectors, the impact of globalization on the spread of EIDs, agencies (e.g., CDC) involved in fighting the spread of diseases, bioterrorism in the past, present and future, and the socioeconomic impact of EIDs and bioterrorism. Lectures, debates, book discussions, films, and projects will be integral parts of this course.
Prerequisites: Either BIO 112, BIO 118, BIO 122 or permission of the instructor.

HON/HIS 218 The City as History - 3 credits

Examines several European cities as built environments and as public stages for the enactment of a variety of social and cultural roles. The design of urban space through art, architecture and engineering is studied, as is the reflection of changes in urban life that can be found in literature, criticism and film. Historical events, as they were witnessed and experienced in these cities, provide continuity and context for explorations in art and culture. Cities studied include Rome, Paris, London, Vienna, Budapest, and Berlin.

HON/HIS 220 Film and History: Visions and Revisions of the Past - 3 credits

From “Schindler’s List” to “Valkyrie,” historically based films have been attracting big box office dollars in the last several years. This course introduces students to the historical fiction film as a creative work and to the techniques filmmakers use to construct their “vision” of past events. Through critical analysis of several dramatic films that take historical events as their subjects, students learn that what they see on the screen is not necessarily what happened, but rather what might have happened. Films include “The Leopard,” “1900,” “Burnt by the Sun,” “Rosenstrasse,” and “Sunshine.”

HON/PSY 224 Women in the Workplace - 3 credits

Examines the theory, research and practice of various issues involving women in the workplace. Topics include the history of women at work, non-traditional occupations and roles, gender differences in communication, leadership, and work styles, management and associated psychological paradigms, relevant legal and political issues, work-life dilemmas, and personal planning and growth strategies. Active participation is required.
For Honors credit, permission of instructor required.

HON/PSY 231 Social Psychology for Psychology - 3 credits

This course will examine theoretical perspectives as well as laboratory and field research demonstrating the importance of situational influences on behavior. Topics include: self-concept and presentation of self, attitude formation and persuasion, conformity and obedience, as well as factors influencing interpersonal attraction, interpersonal aggression, and pro-social behavior.
Offered alternate years.

Throughout Western civilization, philosophy and medicine have accorded women only a very passive role in the process of procreation, even though women have always been defined primarily in terms of their ability to conceive and bear children. This course will examine what effect the various technologies of reproduction (from contraception to assisted reproduction) have had and are having on how women and their bodies are understood and valued. Do the reproductive options made possible by recent technological innovations reinforce or undermine that construction of passivity? Do they empower or oppress women? And what level of autonomy have women gained in the area of reproduction?

HON 244 Psychology and Dramatic Literature - 3 credits

Since the time of Aristotle, drama and psychology have been inseparably linked. Plot, character and dialogue are all shaped by the workings of the mind and the psyche. The emergence of psychotherapy in the 20th century has led playwrights to focus on behavior and create unique and fascinating characters. This course exposes students to several important works of 19th and 20th century drama, in a discussion-style format. Using major psychological theories, students are able to develop their own interpretations of stage characters and the motivations for their actions.

HON 245 Topics in Popular Culture - 3 credits

This course invites students to explore the phenomena of and to apply the skills of critical analysis to modern popular culture forms such as music, film, television, advertising, sports, fashion, toys, magazines and comic books, and cyberculture. Selected semesters only.

HON/PSY 251 Health Psychology - 3 credits

Health Psychology is a rapidly growing field within the discipline of psychology. It is devoted to understanding psychological factors that affect health and disease. Health Psychology emphasizes health promotion while at the same time explores how traditional medical interventions may be fortified through the application of behavioral and psychological principles. The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in employment opportunity for health psychologists, especially in clinical and academic settings.
For Honors credit, permission of instructor required.

HON 260 Special Topics - 3 credits

Offers subjects of special interest to students.

HON/HIS 278 Terror: The History of an Idea - 3 credits

This course seeks to provide a historical, sociological, and cultural context to the phenomenon of terrorism as it is understood in today’s world. The course will explore the different meanings, over the last two or three centuries, that the words “terror,” “terrorism,” and “terrorist” have all carried. Students will explore the historical origins of terror as an idea or ideology, the different forms terrorism has taken, and representations of terrorists in literature, social thought, art, and film. This course does not provide a comprehensive history of terrorism. It does provide a historical and cultural context that may help us to understand what terrorism is, who terrorists are, and why the idea of terror dominates contemporary politics.

HON 350 and 351 Honors Thesis/Project - 3 credits each term

The culmination of a student’s work in the honors program is a senior-year two-semester, six-credit thesis/project under the supervision of a mentor who is expert in the field of inquiry (in most instances, a faculty member). This thesis/project is completed in April of the senior year, and can take the form of a scholarly work, a creative project or a combination of the two. The thesis/project must have a cross-disciplinary dimension. If the student chooses, it may be an extended version of a senior thesis or creative project completed to satisfy the capstone requirement in the student’s major field.